Second Amendment showdown? How NRA lawsuit could backfire on Dems
Pete Hegseth and Emily Compagno discusses the Second Amendment showdown between President Trump and Joe Biden
The National Rifle Association could spend “tens of millions” in battleground states with just months until the 2020 election, despite a steep fundraising hit due to the coronavirus.
If former Vice President Joe Biden succeeds in ousting President Trump, and if Democrats take control of the Senate and maintain their grip on the House, the shift in power would threaten the rights of gun owners, the NRA’s Jason Ouimet told the Washington Free Beacon Thursday.
“You are literally going to be dealing with the potential confiscation of firearms,” he told the outlet. “You're literally going to be told you can't carry in certain places. You can't own certain things for self-defense.”
NEW YORK AG SEEKS TO DISSOLVE NRA IN NEW LAWSUIT
Even after outlasting more progressive Democratic rivals in the presidential primary process, Biden has taken a tough stance on guns.
Almost exactly a year ago, he said in an interview following a pair of mass shootings on opposite sides of the country that he would push for a “national buyback program.” As a senator, he also helped craft the 1994 assault weapons ban.
"We'll spend tens of millions of dollars. Will it be $50 million? I don't know," Ouimet told the Beacon, referring to the sum the NRA spent during the 2016 election season. "We got shut down from doing any of that level of fundraising…That has an impact on us just the same way it has an impact on everybody else."
The NRA will focus on spending in battleground states to help reelect Trump, he said. It also plans to concentrate election-season efforts on swing states where voters have supported gun rights in the past – like Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
A strong 2020 showing for national Democrats is not the only looming threat to the gun rights nonprofit.
On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit to dissolve the NRA due to alleged self-dealing, financial fraud and mismanagement that took millions from the group’s coffers for contracts that benefited its leadership, their families and associates.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
The NRA fought back - filing its own lawsuit against James, accusing her of defamation and violating its right to free speech.
The embattled organization has gained 1,000 new members a day since June, a spokesperson confirmed to Fox News, a sign that its mission still resonates with Americans.
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Amid COVID-19 shutdowns that have snarled the economy and fears that Democratic gains on Election Day could lead to stricter gun control measures, firearm and ammunition sales are surging, Fox Business reported Thursday.
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